1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of interactive communication and more specifically relates to systems and methods for enhancing community communication and event attendee participation and interaction for various events.
2. Background Art
Many industries host or sponsor various types of events, including seminars, conferences, trade shows, etc. These events are often held quarterly or annually, depending on the specific goals and objectives of the event. For example, the Consumer Electronics Show (“CES”) is held annually in Las Vegas, Nev. and offers manufacturers, dealers, and distributors to get together and experience the newest consumer electronic devices being introduced for the coming year.
Similarly, many professional organizations will sponsor and promote conventions. For example, most state bar associations in the United States will sponsor and host an annual convention where all of the attorneys that are licensed to practice law in the state, along with support staff and legal industry vendors and other exhibitors, can gather and interact. Activities at the bar convention will typically include continuing legal education classes, keynote speakers, and vendor displays featuring legal industry related products and service. Another well-known event is the American Association of School Administrators (“AASA”) sponsored by the National Conference on Education. This annual event provides school administrators and superintendents an opportunity to connect with their peers from around the country and engage in activities designed to foster an enhanced learning environment for their students.
While these various events may be somewhat varied in size, scope, participants, and purpose, there are many common elements. For example, at most of these events, there are vendors and exhibitors that pay fees to exhibit their products and services to the event attendees, in the hope of educating the event attendees and creating new opportunities for sales of their product and services to their target market. An “exhibition hall” is usually set up in a location at the event venue and the vendors and exhibitors will try and attract event participants to their booth. However, it is often difficult for the vendors and exhibitors to be noticed in the cacophony and confusion of the exhibition hall. Similarly, it can be difficult for event attendees to locate specific vendors or exhibitors, even with a map.
The orientation of the exhibition hall map may be confusing, the vendor or exhibitor may have been assigned to a different booth or venue, etc. Since the materials for the event are often printed up and mailed out months in advance, changes to the exhibition hall may not timely reach the intended audience. Even if an event attendee has an initial understanding and opinion of which vendors may be most valuable to visit, that may change over the course of a multi-day event and input from other event attendees may alter the planned schedule for visiting vendors. This can lead to endless backtracking and the associated waste of time associated with a rescheduled booth visitation schedule.
Further, for many event attendees, they only hear about a new and promising product and service from a vendor in the exhibition hall after the event has concluded because their was no way for them to learn about the vendor in real time, while attending the event. This missed opportunity can be frustrating as well.
Additionally, most of these events will present a wide variety of speakers, seminars, demonstrations, etc. with a full calendar or slate of activities for the event attendees to choose from. However, it is not uncommon for the event attendees to find it difficult to schedule and keep track of the many scheduled activities that they would like to attend and be involved with. While many venues provide maps and directions, the sheer size of the venue and volume of choices can make information management quite challenging. Additionally, depending on the flow of the events, some seminars may be cancelled, new seminars may be added, technical difficulties may delay the start of finish of activity, etc., causing a “ripple effect” that will impact other activities. An event attendee may show up at a scheduled activity only to find the activity has been cancelled, postponed, or moved to another location at the venue. This can be frustrating for the event attendees and leave them with a negative view of the event and the event organizers.
Finally, at very large events, the number of event attendees may make it difficult to foster effective communication in general. Whether it is communication between event organizers and event attendees, communication between event attendees and vendors/exhibitors, or even communication between individual event attendees and/or groups of event attendees, there are many barriers to effective communication. For example, if two friends attend the same conference or trade show, they may wish to coordinate their schedules so as to attend certain seminars or other activities together. If there is a change in the schedule of events, one of the event attendees may no longer be able to attend. Without some means of effective communication, they may not be able to recalibrate their schedules. While cell phones and text messaging are common communication techniques, the parties still may not be able to connect.
Additionally, given the amount of information provided to event attendees at a typical trade show or conference, one of the main problems that hamper efforts to create an environment of effective communication and that may lead to ineffective and/or inefficient communication is information overload and technology. There are simply so many sources of information present in society today that it is quite challenging to pro-actively master all of the available communication mediums. People have such a wide array of choices available to them that many people are simply overwhelmed and give up. Additionally, with all of the communication options being presented to a person, sorting it all out can be quite intimidating and exhausting.
A great deal of the information overload is the direct result of the increased emphasis on and use of communication technology that didn't even exist 10 years ago. For example, Twitter® Facebook®, Tumblr®, Instagram®, Google Chat®, Google+®, etc. are all relatively new communication methods that have been developed in recent years. Each of these communication platforms has a unique specific interface and protocol, making it difficult for many people to efficiently master all of them. In addition, as new methods of communication are developed, it can be quite difficult for an average use to identify and access all of the appropriate content that may be available. These issues are often exacerbated at conferences and events as event attendees are often required to maintain their every day communications (e.g., work and family related emails, texts, etc.) while simultaneously processing additional communications related to the trade show or conference that they are attending. This can be overwhelming at times.
While events are a significant and valuable way for attendees to enhance their professional education and re-connect with their peers and colleagues from around the country, the limitations of organizing, managing, and attending events can be frustrating. Whether it is information overload or information scarcity, changing schedules, or general communication challenges, many obstacles can diminish the event experience for the sponsors and participants. Accordingly, without improvements in the current systems, procedures, and methods for managing events of various sizes and constituencies, event attendees and event sponsors will continue to find the event experience to be sub-optimal.